Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global IT services and consulting organization, unveiled its latest initiative to enlarge and develop the suitable talent pool available to the IT industry. The TCS Talent Transformation (TCS T2) aims to transform science graduates into global software professionals and is the first scalable program undertaken to draw graduates from disciplines other than engineering into the global technology services industry.

With lack of suitable, trained talent identified as a key potential barrier to growth, the TCS science-to-software program is designed to be a hi-tech, hi-touch learning module that aims to transform B.Sc./BCA degree holders into best-in-class IT professionals.

The TCS Talent Transformation program is designed to spread the economic benefits of employment in the IT industry to wider base of science graduates across India. This will be done through a fast, scaleable model that has been designed to reach out to the large mass of science graduates in the country, irrespective of location.

Five hundred science graduates are currently undergoing the pilot program at TCS' Chennai facilities. The on-going pilot is currently underway at Chennai with 500 graduates selected from across the country. TCS plans to scale up and make offers to 2,000 science graduates during this academic year as a part of this initiative.

Explaining the significance of the initiative, S. Ramadorai, CEO & Managing Director said: "TCS' ability to partner with engineering colleges has been successful in developing a good talent pool. Now, is the time to take this further by encouraging the vast pool of young science graduates to be a part of this global growth story." Mr Ramadorai added: "I believe that this initiative is an innovative solution to broaden the future talent base in the country in a way that can be scaled up as required."

"Good science graduates have attributes like logic and reasoning that are important in the technology services industry. We believe that our transformation program is the way forward to help induct graduates with varied academic backgrounds into the IT industry," added S. Padmanabhan, Global Head - Human Resources.

Designed as an intensive 7-month residential transformation program, the curriculum will include formal lectures, projects and assignments, quizzes and interactive sessions. The selected graduates will undergo courses in the principles of software development and IT, develop an understanding of core technologies underlying IT systems as well services like package implementation as well as new technologies like Java, .Net as well as TCS' proprietary tools, frameworks and quality processes.

These will be complemented by soft-skill development in presentation, communication, teamwork and leadership skills as well as work-life balance activities like musical appreciation to help develop professionals with a global mind-set at the end of the talent transformation program.